


It's a love story, baby

by snapdragonpop007



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Canon Related, First Meetings, Fluff, Love at First Sight, M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot Collection, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Possibly Unrequited Love, and everything in between, these area all based on taylor swift songs who are we kidding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-28 06:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20421269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapdragonpop007/pseuds/snapdragonpop007
Summary: For all the different lives and iterations of Tim Drake and Jason Todd, there are different meetings and stories to go with each one.--or, I write jaytim oneshots based off Taylor Swift songs





	It's a love story, baby

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi on Tumblr @snap-dragon-pop

Tim, while he enjoyed the luxuries that came with his cushy money filled life, did not enjoy the socializing that came with it. He hated the pinched cheeks and the cooing and the _my you’re going like a weed!_ And the many _are you excited to take over the company?_

No, he wasn’t. 

But it wasn’t like he could say that. 

Tim groaned, swiping a flute of champagne off a serving tray as he ducked off onto the balcony. 

No one was out here, and Tim made his way to the edge, setting the flute on the railing and leaning over to look at the gardens below. The night time breeze was a cool welcome to his flushed cheeks, and Tim took a moment to let it soak in and smell the sweetness from the flowers below. 

When he was certain he wasn’t going to choke on his own anxiety and words he turned around, taking the flute back in his hand as he looked in on all the hustle and bustle of the ballroom.

It was a different feeling being out of it as opposed to inside it. There wasn't the crushing pressure to act just right and _smile, for God’s sake Timothy_ for one thing. Out here he could see the act in progress, watch every little slip up, see every little side step and learn the moves of the game that was high society. Not that he didn’t know them already, but out here he could watch the performance being executed almost flawlessly. 

Tim sipped from his flute of champagne he certainly wasn't old enough to have and watched, eyes landing on bright green eyes and freckled cheeks making their way through the mass of bodies and out to Tim’s little corner of safety. 

Tim knew him, but he was struggling to place the name.

“Hello,” he looked a little out of breath as he finally made his way to the threshold of the balcony--standing just on the edge of the ballroom and the outside--but he still offered up a bright smile. “Mind if I join you?”

“What would you do if I said yes?” Tim asked, still trying to place where he knew him. 

“Come out anyway.” His smile got a little wider. “I’d just be more rude about it.” 

Tim snorted, then covered his mouth a moment later because _that’s awful behavior Timothy, you know that._

“I’m Jason.” He crossed the distance to Tim and held his hand out, his smile getting a little softer.

Tim looked at it, then gently took it. “Tim.” 

That’s where Tim knew him from. He was Bruce Wayne’s son--well, one of them. He was the one with pierced ears and a tattoo (or so the rumors go) and dyed hair. He was the one who hadn’t grown up in this life; had lived on the streets before Bruce Wayne scooped him up. He was the one who always got into trouble and _caused a ruckus_, as his mother said, and_ he was the delinquent_, as his father said. 

He was beautiful, Tim thought. 

Jason gave his hand a squeeze, then brought it up to his lips and pressed a soft kiss to Tim’s knuckles.

Tim flushed. 

“What brings you out here?” Jason asked, his lips turned up in a smile as Tim took his hand back and held it close to his chest. “Not that it’s not a nice night for it.” 

It was a nice night out. It just warm enough to be pleasant, the moon shining bright and the stars just barely visible through the haze of the lights coming from the city, and the sweet scent of the flowers from the garden replacing the sharp tang of alcohol and white lies. 

Tim blinked, then cleared his throat. “I just um...I just wanted to get away for a bit.” 

Then Tim bit his cheek and cursed to himself, because _I don’t care if you don’t want to be here, Timothy, just don’t let other people know that._

Jason’s smile got a little sad. 

“Yeah, I get that.” he said. He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning his hip against the railing. “It gets to be a bit too much in there sometimes.”

“It’s a bit too much all the time.” Tim grumbled. 

Jason laughed, something bright and happy and entirely startled out of him. 

Tim grinned.

“Jason?” 

They both looked up at the call. 

Bruce Wayne was standing in the entryway to the ballroom and the balcony, the lights from the ballroom shining brightly enough to bring out the shadows and almost make his face unrecognizable. He had a phone in one hand and keys in the other, and when he actually caught sight of the two of them he walked out onto the balcony and out of the shadows.

“Cass called,” he continued, coming close enough to drop the keys in Jason’s hand. “She wants us to come home.” 

“Shit--is she alright?” 

Tim found himself oddly fascinated with the way Jason’s fingers curled around the keys, the edge of one sticking out between his fingers and shining dully in the light.

“Alfred said her fever spiked again, but other than that…” Bruce trailed off and glanced at Tim, blinking like he had just noticed him for the first time. “Hello, Tim.” 

“Mr. Wayne.” Tim greeted. 

Bruce blinked again, then looked between the two of them. He seemed to relax the longer he looked, and then he smiled. “I’m sorry to drag Jason away from you.” 

“It’s alright.” Tim said, and he knew that it was, although he felt like it wasn’t. 

The keys jangled as Jason adjusted his grip on them, and then he had Tim’s wrist in his hand and was pulling up the sleeve of his suit jacket and his shirt and pulling a pen from seemingly nowhere. He took the cap off with his teeth, then scrawled a phone number on Tim’s arm in blocky strokes, the ink feeling cold and warm on Tim’s skin all at once. 

“There,” Jason put the cap back on and handed the pen back to Bruce, then gently rolled the sleeve of Tim’s jacket back. 

Tim wanted to roll his sleeve back up and look at the number again. “I’ll call, I promise.”

“I hope so.” Jason smiled--and he really did have such a pretty smile, Tim thought--then he leaned forward and pressed the briefest of kisses to Tim’s cheek. 

When Jason pulled back his cheeks were flushed a pale pink, and he gave a rushed goodbye before tugging on Bruce’s arm and pulling him back into the ballroom, keys jangling merrily in his hand. 

Tim lifted a hand to his cheek, gently letting his fingertips ghost over the skin where Jason’t lips had just been. 

\--

Tim didn’t end up calling that night, because he didn’t have to.

Jason Todd showed back up long after the party had ended and right as Tim was about to fall into bed, throwing pebbles at Tim’s window until he went to investigate. 

“Jason?” Tim was hanging halfway out his window, dutifully aware of the fact that the only thing he was wearing right now was a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. He took a little solace in the fact that Jason couldn’t see much, and then he felt a little disappointed that Jason couldn’t see much. “What are you doing?” 

“Can you let me in?” was Jason’s response. 

Tim hesitated for a moment. Then he held up his finger to tell Jason to wait, then he slid the window shut and went downstairs as quickly and quietly as he could. 

When he opened the front door Jason was already standing in front of it, smiling and holding out a single daisy.

“What are you doing here?” Tim stepped out onto the front porch, closing the door behind him. It was colder out than what it had been, and he bit back a shiver and wrapped his arms around himself.

“My baby sister was upset that I left a cute boy to take care of her,” Jason answered. He reached up and slid the flower behind Tim’s ear. “So she sent me back and told me to give you flowers.” 

Tim couldn’t quite hold back his smile. “But you only gave me one flower.”

“It’s all I had on short notice.” Jason’s smile got a little brighter and Tim shivered. “Oh! God, you’ve got to be cold--here,”

Jason slid off his jacket and slipped it over Tim’s shoulders. 

It was an old and worn thing and probably used to be a handsome dark brown color but was now so faded that you could hardly tell it had been anything other than a sandy color. But it was warm and it smelled like tobacco and sugar and Tim was seized with the thought that he never wanted to give it back. 

“Won’t you be cold?” Tim asked instead.

Jason had changed his pressed suit and wrinkle free button up into a Gotham Knights t-shirt and a pair of jeans, and the fabric of his shirt looked so thin that Tim was cold just from looking at it. 

Jason shrugged, his arms moving fluidly with the motion and exposing a flash of ink on the inside of his arm, right above his elbow. “I’m used to it.”

“Oh.” Tim bit his cheek and looked down, and then, because he didn’t have any brain to mouth filter “You _do_ have a tattoo.” 

Jason blinked, then looked down at his arm and laughed. “Yeah, I guess I do.” 

“Can I see?”

Jason held his arm out, and Tim held it, gently running his fingers along a star and moon that would have been black, but had faded to gray in color. They were crudely done; it was easy to tell that it wasn’t done professionally. In fact, Tim wouldn’t have been surprised if Jason had done it himself, and he asked him just that before he realized the words had left his mouth. 

Jason laughed again. “Yeah--about a year before Bruce took me in.”

“Did it hurt?” Tim asked, tracing along the shaky lines and sharp angles of ink.

“It wasn’t too bad.” Jason was looking at him when Tim finally looked back up at him, his smile possibly the softest thing Tim had ever seen. “It was infected for a bit, and that hurt like a bitch.”

“I’m sorry,” it felt wrong to speak the apology in anything above a whisper, like whatever moment this was that they had fallen into would break and shatter and leave Tim standing on the doorstep alone. 

“What are you sorry for?” Jason’s voice was just as soft and he took a step closer to Tim. “It wasn’t your fault.” 

“I don’t know,” Tim bit his lip, eyes darting away from Jason’s for a moment before coming back. “I’m glad you came back.” 

“Yeah, me too.” 

The porch lights turned on just as Jason leaned a little closer, and the two of them jumped back in surprise. The door flung open a second later and Tim’s father came outside, his mother hovering anxiously behind him. 

“Timothy, what on Earth are you doing?” 

“I was just--”

Tim didn’t get a chance to explain before his father was rounding on Jason. 

“And _you_! What do you think you’re doing?”

Jason did even get a chance to open his mouth before Tim’s father was continuing on. 

“I’m calling your father--”

“There’s no need to--”

Tim’s father wasn’t hearing Jason. He already had his phone out and was dialing a number and spouting off more warnings and threats to Jason while Tim’s mother tried to calm him down. 

“Alright! Okay! I’m going!” Jason held up his hands and took a step backwards.

Tim reached out, taking a hold of Jason’s wrist before he could get too far. “Jason, don’t go, please--” 

“I’ll come back, Timmy, I promise.”

“You’ll do no such thing--!”

“You better,” Tim ignored the ramblings of his father, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Jason’s lips. He was pulled back a moment later by his father and shoved into his mother's arms, and Jason took off towards a car that Tim hadn’t even noticed parked at the end of the drive as his father yelled and his mother hurried him inside. 

\--

Jason came back the next night and the next night and every night for the next two weeks, and every time Tim hurried them both to the garden before anyone could see, and every time they talked about anything and everything and kissed when they were sure not even the moon was watching and tangled fingers together and hooked ankles around each other and smiled and laughed and thought they might be falling in love. 

“My dad will kill you if he sees you,” Tim hissed it out, tugging Jason through a path of lilac trees and poppy bushes. 

He said this every time, but it had long lost its meaning.

“That’s a risk I’ll take,” Jason was grinning, and Tim rolled his eyes and pulled him down onto a bench hidden away in grasses and flowers. Jason’s grin faded into a smile, and he took Tim’s hand in his and tangled their fingers together. “I just...I just really wanted to see you.” 

“Good.” Tim said, then reached a hand up to cup the back of Jason’s neck and pulled him into a kiss. 

Jason made a surprised little noise, then he smiled against Tim’s lips and leaned into it, lifting his other hand to rest over Tim’s hip. 

It didn’t last very long and it wasn’t anything more than a chastise press of lips against lips, but when they pulled back they were both flushed a pleasant shade of pink. 

“Why don’t we take a drive?” Jason asked. “Get out of the city for awhile?”

Tim looked up to the house for a moment, thought of his father and his mother and how angry they would be if they found out, thought about how enamored he was with this boy who snuck into the garden just to see him and how it made his heart do funny things, then looked back to Jason. “Let’s go.” 

Jason grinned.

They didn’t once let go of each other’s hand as they snuck out of the garden and down the drive to Jason’s car—that he had wisely parked down the block—and they would have kept their fingers interlocked if they didn’t have to let go to get into the car. Even then they held hands over the center console as Jason drove, and Tim tried hard not to think about how easily he could fall in love with Jason Todd. 

—

They ended up in an empty carpool lot somewhere on the edge of Gotham, just far enough out where you could see the brightest stars in the sky. 

“I always wondered what it would be like to seem them properly.

Tim hummed and turned to Jason.

“The stars.” Jason clarified. “I’ve never actually seen them outside of the city.”

They were sitting on the hood of the car, Tim bundled up in another one of Jason’s jackets and leaning into his side. Jason had an arm around his shoulder, holding him close in such a way that it could easily be excused by keeping you warm, but everyone knew it wasn’t. 

“They’re really pretty,” Tim murmured. 

“We’ll have to go sometime.” Jason said it so matter of factly, like they hadn’t snuck out, like they weren’t sneaking around and hiding from Tim’s parents, like they weren’t lying to Bruce and Alfred, even though they both clearly knew what Tim and Jason were up to.

It made Tim’s heart do funny things. 

_Jason_ made Tim’s heart do funny things.

“I think I could fall in love with you.” It slipped out of Tim’s mouth before he could really stop it, but once it was out, he didn’t want to take it back. 

Jason was silent for a moment, then he squeezed Tim’s shoulder and dropped his head on Tim’s, burying his nose in his hair and pressing his lips to his temple. “I think I already fell in love with you.” 

Tim’s breath hitched, then he was pulling back and cradling Jason’s jaw between his palms and kissing him. 

\--

When they got back to Tim’s house his father was standing on the front porch with Bruce next to him, and they were arguing. 

“I can turn around right now.” Jason looked at Tim, a smile on his lips and knuckles white from how tightly he was holding onto the steering wheel. 

Tim wanted to tell him yes, was about to say _please, lets just go_, but then Tim’s father was storming down the steps and to the car with Bruce right behind him and the only thing they could do was get out of the car and deal with whatever was coming their way. 

Tim squeezed Jason’s hand and leaned over the console to press a soft kiss to Jason’s lips, and they both got out of the car just as his father reached it. 

“I told you to stay the hell away from Timothy--” he brushed right past Tim to get to Jason, and Bruce caught him around the arm and pulled him back.

“Jackson, please, lets just--” 

“And I told you to keep a better eye on this delinquent!”

Jason flinched back at the word and Bruce scowled.

“Don’t you dare--” Bruce started, but Tim’s father continued on.

“I want you to leave right now--”

“No!” This time Tim spoke, standing in between his father and Jason. “Dad, no, don’t make Jason go, please,” 

“Why the hell should I let him stay?”

“It’s okay.” Jason’s voice was quiet, but it seemed to echo and resonate more than anyone else's. His hands were still on the car door and his smile was entirely too stiff. “I’ll go.” 

Tim felt a hollow pit of fear and dread drop in his stomach. “No, Jay, you don’t--” 

“Tim, it’s okay. Really.” it didn’t sound like it was at all okay, but Jason’s smile got a little softer as he looked at Tim and his grip on the door lessened. Then he looked over at Bruce, who looked just as upset as Tim felt. “I’ll see you at home, B.” 

Then Jason got in the car and everyone took a step back, watching as he backed up down the driveway and then drove off into the emptiness of the night.

Tim’s vision started to blur with tears, and he hardly registered his father speaking to him.

“What?” he asked, his voice wavering and cracking. 

“House. Now.”

And Tim went.

\--

Tim still texted and Jason still called, but they hadn’t seen each other since that night. 

It had only been a handful of months since then, Tim knew, but it had felt so much longer than just those months. Winter had just settled in, and Tim stood out on the balcony now, bundled up in the faded brown leather jacket, phone in hand, staring out at the now dead garden and waiting for his phone to buzz as he watched the snow fall around him. 

He knew Jason had started university, and that he had a new baby brother, and that Cass had started middle school. He knew that Jason was double majoring in literature and twentieth century american history and minoring in theater and vocal performance. He had listened to Jason sing to him over the static of the phone and--once upon a time--in the garden they snuck into late at night, and he stayed up late into the night while Jason rambled on about some book Tim had never read. 

He also knew that he was still hopelessly in love with Jason Todd, despite his father's many attempts to tell him to find someone better. 

_He’s a terrible influence, Timothy_. His father would always say. _You need to take over this company, and not run off to read books and sing._

Tim sighed softly, tucking the jacket tighter around him. 

It still smelled like tobacco and sugar. 

Tim’s phone buzzed twice, and when he looked at it, it displayed a single text from Jason.

_Meet me at the carpool lot_

Tim didn’t even think twice before running back inside to grab his keys. 

\--

Jason was leaning against his motorcycle when Tim arrived, hands shoved in his pockets and snow falling gently onto his hair and shoulders. 

He lit up when he saw Tim, and they met each other halfway across the lot, and Tim felt his heart leap into his throat when Jason hesitated and stopped. “Jay…?” 

“I, um…” he cleared his throat and shoved his hand deeper into his coat pocket. “I talked to your dad a few days ago, and I uh…”

He pulled out a little black box, and Tim’s eyes went wide. 

“I know it’s only been a few months, but I just--” Jason looked up at him then, and he looked so terribly vulnerable in that moment, so scared and bracing himself for the worst. “I’m pretty damn sure you’re it for me, Timmy, and I don’t...I don’t want to keep waiting.” 

“Are you asking me to marry you?” Tim asked, not quite believing it.

Jason took a deep breath. “Will you?” 

Tim was silent for a moment, then he flung himself at Jason, wrapping his arms around his neck and fighting back tears. “You’re such an idiot, Jason.”

Jason had staggered back when Tim crashed into him, but he had wrapped his own arms around Tim’s waist and held him close. “Am I?”

“Yes!” then Tim was laughing. “Yes, I’ll marry you, you idiot.”

Tin knew this was crazy, that people would ask him if he was sure and tell him that he wasn’t obligated to anything. He knew people would question this and say they were both crazy, but Tim was pretty damn sure that Jason was it for him too.

**Author's Note:**

> I will say right off the bat (ha) that I'm using this more as writing practice for me more than anything else. Having said that, I do still hope you enjoy my taylor swift jaytim endeavors 
> 
> ALSO, if ya'll got any specific T. Swift songs you wanna see, hit me up


End file.
